Former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on social media Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
The two leaders identify as the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the arrival of state military personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding vehement protests from Illinois authorities including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on that day. "I'm not going anywhere."
The governor responded via online channels, stating: "I refuse to back down. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of elected officials checking his power. What's next on the path to complete autocracy?"
As of midweek, military units from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation approximately 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its aggressive urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite police data indicate notable reductions in many offenses, such as homicides.
That day, 200 state guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard forces preparing to mobilize, according to reports. Officials indicated the troops would avoid police functions but would secure ICE officers and their facilities.
Military personnel in combat attire with state guard insignia were spotted at the military facility in the town. Vehicles marked "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off sanitation facilities and essential items. Trailers were set up in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the compound.
Aviation authorities imposed flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until 6 December.
The administration has escalated deportation operations in the city in recent weeks, triggering demonstrations, especially near an immigration center in Broadview.
On Monday, state and city initiated legal action targeting the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on the city and state, labeling it "unlawful and risky".
A court hearing on their case is scheduled for the next day.
The mayor also signed an executive order on that day prohibiting ICE officers and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has charged the president of using troops as "staged tools" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "rationalize and normalize the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law limits the military's role in civilian law enforcement. However, Trump has stated he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to put down an insurrection or are resisting federal law.
After beginning his new administration, the president has dispatched or mentioned deploying military units to at least 10 urban centers, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the military presence is necessary to fight violence and defend immigration agents.
Data indicates that serious offenses across the US has declined in recent years. In Chicago, for example, homicides were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, according to police data.
A recent poll published on Wednesday revealed that most Americans oppose the sending of military forces without an external threat.
